Five-year-old George* Garcia asked his mother, Shannon, for a quarter. George wanted to make a wish at a well. He wasn’t wishing for a pet dog or a super power—he had given it more thought than any other child would. He clenched the coin in his hand and dropped it in with his eyes shut, hoping that his wish to be a girl would come true.

From the time George was 16 to 18 months old, he displayed behavior that was not typical of the average little boy. With five older masculine brothers, George stood out from the rest. He played only with Barbie dolls and regularly wrapped a towel around his waist after bath time, pretending it was a skirt.

George refused to play with boy-toys. At toy stores, he’d scurry to the girl’s aisle, leaving his father confused and angered. “I offered to buy any toy as long as it wasn’t a girl toy,” says John, George’s father. “I thought, what is he doing dressing up like a girl, is it Halloween or a joke?”

Even with George’s meek behavior and passion for all things pink, his family thought he’d snap out of it one day. “My husband and I thought it was just a phase, even the pediatrician said it would stop when he entered school,” says Shannon, George’s mother. “My head held onto that idea but my heart knew that wasn’t true.”

At preschool in his Midwest town, George played dress-up with little girls. His teacher told him that only little girls did those things and little boys weren’t supposed to. Sometime before, when George told his mother that he was a girl and not a boy, Shannon responded by saying that God intended for him to be a boy. But George was insistent—“God made a mistake,” he replied.

Every morning was the same routine for George: wake up, get ready for school, then beg and plead to stay home before riding the school bus. He often cried at school and didn’t want to be there, but it wasn’t the typical case of separation anxiety or shyness that kept him from wanting to go to school. George explained to his mother that it was hard pretending to be a boy.

“When he told me that, I didn’t want to force him to go back,” says Shannon. “I would bribe him by telling him I’d buy [him] a Barbie if he didn’t cry the whole week.” That method worked for a while but didn’t last long. Shannon and John believed that their son’s femininity translated to him being gay. “That’s all we could come up with at the time,” she says.

Shannon contacted a social worker who supplied her with numerous transgender resources. Determined to get answers, Shannon phoned a psychotherapist, Moonhawk River Stone, who she calls a “gender guru,” and explained George’s behavior to him. After hearing about George, the psychotherapist immediately told the bewildered family that it just so happens they have a little girl who was born with a penis, otherwise known as a transgender. “Hearing that there was a name for it gave us a sense of relief,” says Shannon. “It took us a while to get used to the idea but it really made sense.”

George couldn’t understand why he was biologically male. The five year old was depressed. He barely spoke. He was upset at his father for throwing out Barbie dolls and pushing boyish toys on him. He even threatened to cut off his penis with a pair of scissors. “She is physically a boy, but mentally and emotionally there is nothing male about her,” says Shannon. “I felt that if I did not surrender [and allow George to live as a female], my child was going to take her own life.”

Shannon gained support from an online email group made up of parents with transgender children of their own. “I got on that site and within minutes other parents were writing to me,” Shannon says. “I thought these people were crazy for renaming their kids.” As Shannon started talking more and more to the support group, she realized their stories were hers and she didn’t feel alone anymore.

Although overwhelmed by the pieces of their child’s identity coming together, Shannon and John knew they had to help their depressed child be happy. It was on a family trip to Tennessee that George was left behind and Ashley* joined the family. “My mom and I went online to a baby name site and made a list of names we both liked,” says Ashley. “Everyone calls me Ashley because that’s my name.”

Shannon and John decided she would dress in girl’s clothing for the whole week of vacation, an idea Ashley didn’t object to. “Nobody knew us and it was like an experiment to see what would happen,” says Shannon. “We were all scared but we had to try it.”

A couple of days before the trip, Ashley and Shannon went clothes shopping. While in the little girl’s section, Ashley was fully aware of her surroundings and knew that it would be odd for a little boy to pick out feminine outfits. Ashley’s way of voicing her fashion opinion was in code that only her mother understood, but wouldn’t sound unusual to others. “She told me, ‘Michaela would like this and Michaela would like that,”’ says Shannon. “I knew that by using her cousin’s name, it was my cue to get that particular item for Ashley.”

Ashley’s demeanor changed instantly. Instead of being shy and unhappy, the minute she wore those clothes, she shed her old skin and felt more comfortable in her new one. “I didn’t have to pretend anymore,” says Ashley. “I was happy to just be me, a girl.” After coming back from the trip, Shannon and John made the life-changing decision to allow their daughter to permanently become Ashley on December 19, 2006 at the age of six.

They moved Ashley to a new school and Shannon urged administrators to take a workshop, in which she facilitated on how to better accommodate the needs of a transgender student. “I conducted myself in a diplomatic way,” says Shannon. “They listened to everything I had to say.”

Shannon’s drive to educate others on how to make Ashley as comfortable as possible in society has made all the difference for Ashley’s school experience. “I like school,” says Ashley. “I’m happy there.” With her daughter and other families with transgender children in mind, Shannon decided to start an organization called Trans Youth Family Advocates (TYFA) in 2006. TYFA provides resources in a one-stop website for families like the Garcia’s to better educate themselves and the community around them.

With supportive parents like Shannon and John, Ashley’s wish to be a girl, now as a 7-year-old, has come true. “My dream is to grow up and get married and be a mommy,” says Ashley.

*name changed for privacy